Chord Hugo ?

Wisnon, so, you've made your point that you are positive that the Hugo is not better than a Big7. I'll concede since I've never heard a Lampizator and likely never will. Once again, no one is saying that it is! It's probably not competitive with a DCS stack either....nor an ARC reference dac.....nor many others.

The point I believe we are trying to make here is that in general there are some really cool developments happening in the digital world right now. Specifically we are saying that the Hugo moves the needle in what may be possible at a reasonable price point presently. the qute dacs, while very good are not at the level at which the Hugo performs. You may disagree, which is terrific....especially in light of the fact that I can not possibly imagine the depth of your immense knowledge of the development of this DAC. Be sure to pick up your telephone when called upon by Chord's r&d department, your input will likely be crucial to their very survival. peace.

Where did I disagree with the digital advances of Hugo???
If I somehow gave you that impression I apologise.

Also, the snide R&D comment is uncalled for. I merely tried to show you guys that I have my own contacts from long ago and I had long ago read the HF thread. I am NOT new to Chord nor to Hugo developments. i was Chord when Chord was yet cool! LoL

I have a Qute precisely because of the FPGA tech. The only point of small disagreement with the tech is that I dont think its the best DSD approach to decimate to 2048FS PCM!

The analog side of Hugo is the weakpoint and its not a real issue as it's a portable battery powered Dac. In full blown desktop version, those shortcomings will very likely be solved and we will see the full potential. Rob Watts is VERY talented. The Qute/QBD currently have the advantage of better power supply and that is half the battle in Digital audio. It seems people forget that analog is the end goal of digital audio and that even the digital data is physically represented by analog constructs (electricity).

I am a fan of Hugo too, but i think the Head-fi site has it overblown as much as this site has it disrespected and ignored (relatively)

I have had a Lampi for years and I "shill" as you say for Chord too.

I have many trusted pals with the Hugo and one is getting ready to sell it.
There are many convos with influential people behind the scene.

The Job was a no brainer, but I never commented on the sound, just the pedigree. In addition, people were staved for info on this mythical amp and I was the only "layman" to see the relaunched first production batch. Until I recently moved 2 months ago, i lived 5 mins drive away from Goldmund and have developed some good contacts there. Finally, I solicited design feedback from 2 MEGA ULTRA high-end designers in the industry (one workd on the Job circuitry years ago) and both gave the amp rousing paise, especially for the price!

In any case, there is never any reason to be snide. That is unbecoming and you seem classier than that.

Well, now that I have my hands on it, I would say it I enjoy
what I'm hearing quite a bit more than the Playback Designs
MPS5, Burmester 001, and original EMM CDSA and
Modright-Sony 5400ES cd players
I used to own a few years ago. It has more refinement, less
glare (especially in vocals), less digital pain from
something suddenly jumping forward unnaturally, a more
balanced sound from the nice deep transparent bass to the
sweet highs, and lots of detail and focus. The soundstaging
is good too, with good layering, and decent depth. (I would
not call the staging excellent, but certainly very good and
not compressed at all.) But the tonality is superb, along
with image definition and silky but well defined boundaries.
I was listening to some vintage live Joni Mitchell (BBC
1970), live Beach Boys, and live Beatles on youtube, and it
was entrancing. It's amazing I could get sound like this
from youtube. I'm just mainly using this thing as a DAC with
and external headphone amp/preamp (along with Fostex TH900
phones and Quad 12L speakers), an Audioquest Carbon USB
cable, Stealth Indra ICs, and a Shunyata Anaconda Alpha
powercord to my (ancient) Headroom Max amp. I have a Windows
7 desktop. It combines great detail without fatigue to my
ears, which I think is always the primary goal of digital
components.
It's kind of a pain with the usb cables and power wire
coming out of one side and the interconnects on the opposite
side, but maybe there will be a better future bigger version
with a more elegant design for desktop/home use. And the
micro-usb input is also a pain (the Audioquest cable needs
an adapter and is a bit awkward).

I should mention that my main system has an EMM Xds1, and
that to my ears it is the best I have heard, with so much
insight, layering, depth, and ambiance I am not considering
replacing it ever. I have not used it as a dac, just for
cds.